Dr. Joe Wydeven returns to first love – teaching.

Joe Wydeven, Ph.D. came to Bellevue University in 1979. After serving as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, he will return to teaching this fall.
Joe Wydeven is amazed at the changes he has witnessed during his 26 years at Bellevue University, 16 years as a member of the faculty and the past 10 years as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Now he is returning to his first love – teaching.

Before coming to Bellevue University, when Dr. Wydeven was working on his master’s degree in English at DePaul University in Chicago, he had his first experience teaching adult non-traditional students in the evening program. He realized how much he liked working with students who were experienced and motivated, having been out in the “real world.”

So when he came to Bellevue University (after completing his Ph.D. at Purdue University in 1979), he was pleased to continue working with adult learners. In 1993 he used that experience to develop an accelerated learning degree program now called Liberal Arts and Professional Applications. Since starting the program, he has been gratified to see that six of his students have been selected as commencement speakers at the University’s graduation ceremonies – events very special to the dedicated dean and professor.

Dr. Wydeven is an expert on Nebraska literature and Nebraska authors, particularly novelist and photographer Wright Morris, about whom he wrote a book entitled Wright Morris Revisited, a biographical and critical study of Morris’s career.

This fall, Dr. Wydeven will return to the classroom. You will find him directing and teaching in the Liberal Arts and Professional Applications program and teaching Humanities courses, no doubt slipping in a Nebraska author or two in his courses, and working on a study of autobiographies by Nebraskans and others who call the Midwest home.